The seventy-third session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for the Western Pacific will discuss major health issues in the Region, including reaching the unreached, mental health, primary health care, cervical cancer and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This story is part of a series examining how each health topic affects people in the Region.
Building trust and combating misinformation on the causes, symptoms and treatment of cervical cancer are the first steps to eliminating the condition, said nurse and midwife Karolina Tamani, 62.
Nurse Karo, as she is known, has screened countless women for cervical and breast cancers in her work for the Fiji Cancer Society, a nongovernmental organization based in the capital, Suva.
“I reach out to the community because these women face a lot of challenges. The information to empower them is very, very important if you want to reduce cervical cancer morbidity.
“A lot of misconceptions make it difficult for the woman to have a pap smear. A misconception on screening is that the experience is painful and that the instrument used for the test causes cancer, which is definitely not true,” she said.
Only when she has gone into communities to build trust and share information can Nurse Karo begin screening women for the condition, which is preventable and curable, and can be eliminated if all stakeholders unite against this common goal.
“I can still remember when we did an outreach in Tailevu highlands. Women were very shy initially, not interested in screening. But with the information that we shared, and (when we) reassured them about the process of testing, they came forward.
“We detected sisters who both had positive results. The rewarding part is that we saw them going through the referral process until they got their treatment done. I remember that because these women were saved from something that they didn’t
know they had already.”
Watch Nurse Karo talk about her work to ensure women have access to early cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Across the WHO Western Pacific Region, health-care workers like Nurse Karo play a crucial role in increasing screening coverage and providing timely and quality treatment to help eliminate cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer is a priority this year for the Regional Committee, which will discuss the Strategic Framework for the Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Cervical Cancer in the Western Pacific Region 2023–2030, which was developed through consultation with Member States, experts and
other stakeholders. The Framework guides Member States to develop policies, implement programmes and advocate the elimination of cervical cancer in the Region.
The Western Pacific Region bears one quarter of the global cervical cancer burden. Cervical cancer is the sixth most diagnosed cancer and the eighth most common cause of cancer death in women in the Region.
In 2020, an estimated 145 700 women in the Region were diagnosed with cervical cancer and 74 900 died. Without a coordinated response, the number of cases and deaths will continue to increase.
Few diseases reflect global inequities as much as cervical cancer. The majority of cervical cancer deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries. This is also where the burden of cervical cancer is greatest. Access to public health services is
limited, and screening and treatment for the disease have not been widely implemented.
Yet cervical cancer is preventable and curable and can be eliminated if 90% of girls are vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) before age 15, 70% of women are screened at ages 35 and 45 and 90% of women diagnosed with cervical cancer and precancer
are treated. Member States must set management guidelines for all stages of cervical cancer and ensure equal access to care.
WHO supports countries’ efforts by continuing to provide technical assistance for the development and implementation of cervical cancer action plans and setting up screening programmes, the development of advocacy and communication materials, and
the identification of cost-effective means to sustain availability of HPV vaccines and tests. WHO and its partners support upskilling of health workers and provide technical assistance to strengthen service delivery by integrating and improving accessibility
at the primary care level.
Without a coordinated response including vaccination, screening and treatment, the number of cases and deaths will continue to rise. By acting together, a world free of cervical cancer is possible.